it can be very useful on one of these big bills like the affordable care act, but if you're using the filibuster on everything, the majority is not going to bring this place to a halt over hiring an assistant secretary for education. so my thoughts that i have had for some years. now it takes 60 senators to stop debate. the onus is on the majority. in the past they had to haul 92-year-old robert burns out of his hospital bed to come to the floor to provide that 60th vote. you want to continue to debate, you have to have 41 voters on the floor every time there's a motion to stop debate. that seems to me as a more effective way. because you could make it apply to all these over filibusters. host: a tweet says what happened to majority rules? the filibuster was to give everybody a say, not to rule the land. >> and a filibuster was a rarely-used phenomenon. up until the 1950's yoo might get one or two a year. now cloture chure motions, the one who stop debates aren't ones you talk about. host: democrats line, james, go ahead. caller: yes, good morning, c-span. thank you for taking my call